David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the call yesterday by the leader of the Green Party and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, for Ireland to withdraw from the European Defence Agency, a call I have been making for a long time, in particular since that group, which coyly changed its name from the European Armaments Group, is interested in the manufacture of armaments and in developing an export industry to go into competition with the United States. This, in my opinion, explains some of the energy with which Mr. Ganley prosecutes his opposition to the Lisbon treaty. If the Government does withdraw from the European Defence Agency, and I understand there will be a Cabinet meeting today on the matter although the Government has unscrupulously avoided this issue and has not responded to my questions on it for the past 18 months resulting in my having to oppose the Lisbon treaty, I and other people will be permitted, as we want, to campaign in favour of the Lisbon treaty.

With regard to the budget, like a rose, a budget by any other name would smell as sweet or as sour. We must listen carefully to suggestions from all quarters, including Fintan O'Toole who made a compelling case for an examination of tax relief on pensions. The current cost of this tax relief is up to €2 billion, which is a luxury. This measure should be examined.

We ought to discuss also the report of Transparency International, a motion on which I tabled a few days ago and which is listed as No. 22, motion 35 on the Order Paper today. The Deputy Leader appeared yesterday to be open to providing time for such a discussion. I am not particularly proprietorial and do not necessarily believe we should discuss my motion but we should consider the issues involved.

Perhaps the Deputy Leader will indicate when the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008 will come to this House. This is nasty, badly drafted and politically corrupt legislation which badly needs to be examined. The Government should take on board the call by the Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, that her office be given a role in monitoring the processes by which this is applied. I point out in support of that argument that the Irish Human Rights Commission, even in the state to which it has been reduced by the nasty operations of this Government, and Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner, have advocated this and have indicated that Ireland is unusual in Europe in not permitting these areas to be examined. It is astonishing that the person who dismissed this out of hand is a spokesperson for the Department of Finance. If the Department of Finance, which as various speakers have said cannot get the figures right even occasionally, is to be supreme in terms of human rights, we are in trouble.